Apps That Made My Week: A Floating Browser, a New Reddit Client, and More

Every week, we at Android.AppStorm come across lots of apps that impress us – far more than we could review! These posts are a chance for us to highlight the apps we’ve been enjoying recently, so that you can enjoy them too.

This week: an addictive game, an Ice Cream Sandwich orientated Twitter client, a beautiful way to browse Reddit, and a floating browser!

This is an example of how you don’t need fancy graphics and effects to make a game fun and highly addictive.

To play Swerve and Destroy, you tilt your phone around to move a white dot amongst red dots. The idea is that you’re looking at a top-down view of a man being chased by zombies, so touching one instantly kills you. The longer you last in the game, the faster the zombies appear. Thankfully there are plenty of power-ups which you can collect as you move around your screen, such as water-cannons, “radiation” waves, electrical shields, and all kinds of other fancy doo-dads.

Things get rather hectic rather quickly.

This game is so low-end that it will run on practically any phone, so I encourage each and every one of you to try it out – it’s free!

Personally I think it makes a great time-killer, especially for short journeys. Once you quickly learn what each power-up symbol does, you won’t want to stop playing.

Though currently in Alpha (very early test stages), the existing version of Boid on Google Play is a great insight as to what this great Twitter client will eventually be like.

Developed solely for Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, this Twitter client focuses on looking sharp and elegant, like Android 4.0 itself. I’ve been using it for a while now, and although it’s currently lacking some features (widgets and notifications), what’s there is working tip-top!

I'm a big fan of minimalism and clear looks.

If you’re already happy using another Twitter client on your phone, then you won’t leave it for Boid quite yet. However I can confidently say that in the near future, you’ll be tempted to.

There are loads of Reddit clients for Android; “BaconReader” and “Reddit is Fun” are two of the most well-known and popular ones. This new one, Reddit Sync, makes Reddit look even more attractive than it does on your computer. It has a fast and clean ICS holo-style interface, the ability to download images, alternate themes, and most importantly it marks Reddit posts as read. It’s fast, and pretty. What more could you want?

The app is compatible with Android 2.2 and higher, and although it’s only had 5,000 – 10,000 downloads, it’s one of the highest rated Reddit applications, with an average of 4.5 stars over 225 ratings.

I'm sure you'll agree, a very nice layout!

If you’re a Reddit addict like myself and regularly check up on your favourite subreddits with an Android app, give Reddit Sync a try. Though it doesn’t offer any more features than other clients, it certainly makes up in appearances.

Though it’s not feature-packed, I tried this launcher and liked what it offers people: minimalism and speed.

Designed for low-end phones with little spare application memory, Lightning Launcher is the most minimalistic launcher I’ve ever seen. The developer even makes the Settings page a separate application to prevent needless data being loaded into your phone’s memory.

Minimal or what?.

Of course you don’t have to have a low-end phone to enjoy Lightning Launcher. Many people have been commenting that its high level of customisation makes it a great launcher for the high-end phones too.

The final app that has made my week is Overskreen, or “Floating Browser”. This fully-equipped browser sits atop whatever window you like, and allows you to use browse the web and do something else at the same time. I find it most useful when I am reading tweets and have a need to click a link. With OverSkreen I can open the link in the floating browser, read tweets while the link loads, and then close the page – all without leaving my Twitter client.

Dragging a window above others is something you don't otherwise see on Android.

Final Thoughts

So those are my favourite apps this week. Take a look at them yourself (the green titles link to the apps’ Play Store pages). I’m sure that at least one of them will please you!